An Argentinian woman who insisted on seeing the body of her premature baby found the infant alive in the drawer of a hospital morgue. Authorities say the girl had spent 12 hours in a refrigerated room at the Perrando hospital in Resistencia, northern Argentina.

The girl's mother, Analia Bouter, told the Todo Noticias TV channel she thought she was hallucinating when she looked at her child in the morgue drawer and heard a whimper and saw signs of life.

Doctors said the girl was in a stable condition.

The girl was born three months premature on 3 April, and the hospital issued a death certificate saying she died of unknown causes, Bouter said.

Bouter said doctors told her "nobody knows how she could have survived 12 hours in a refrigerated room".

Rafael Sabatinelli, the deputy health secretary of Chaco province, where the hospital is located, said authorities were investigating the incident.